Mobile money to poor $5b by 2012

The market of mobile financial services to poor people in emerging markets will surge from nothing to $5 billion in 2012, U.S.-based microfinance policy and research center CGAP said on Monday, according to Reuters.
Mobile money is one of the hottest topics in the wireless world, but so far take-up of services has been mostly limited to a few emerging markets, as in developed countries the popularity of online banking has been a brake on mobile money.
“Theres a lot of excitement, but very little understanding what’s going on as the number of implementations is still limited,” said Mark Pickens, microfinance analyst at CGAP.